Have you ever felt stereotyped? My life has been full of those that people have labeled me with.

I'm a 20 year-old Latina, and my mom had me when she was 14 years old. I grew up with people constantly feeling bad for me for having such young parents. My dad is from Honduras, a third-world country and one of the most dangerous in Central America, and it was easy for those around me to stereotype me because of it.

As I got older, people always thought I would be pregnant by the time I was 16. I grew up in the third ward in New Orleans, which isn't the most ideal or safe place to raise a child. New Orleans is an interesting place with a very noticeable class gap.

To make people feel even more sorry for me, Hurricane Katrina struck. Even though the aftermath was a tragedy, it didn't make me lash out on life. People may have thought I would react by taking drugs or having sex, even though I was only ten years old. I vividly remember in sixth grade I was put in a special class for the "high risk" girls. The class was basically a group therapy session that had an added sex education element.

I was stereotyped for being Mexican, but would get comments that I look Asian at least five times a week and still to this day. I'm half Honduran and half Nicaraguan, but most importantly, I'm an American. Because I was born here, I've had the chance that my cousins didn't get to have.

My father didn't even finish high school. All the stereotypes I heard people whisper about me throughout the years just motivated me more to go beyond being just a statistic. People assumed because of all my difficult circumstances, I wouldn't even graduate high school, let alone go to a university.

Once I arrived at university, I thought all the stereotyping would go away, and they haven't. Now people assume some of the most bigoted things about me because I proudly wear three Greek letters across my chest. Going to college has made me realize people are always going to have some sort of preconceived notion about you — good or bad.

I sometimes feel the whole world is looking at me under a microscope waiting for me to fail. I'm almost 21 years old and I've never majorly failed at anything or made a mistake that has negatively affected my life in a huge way, yet. I won't give anyone the satisfaction of thinking I'm that easy to figure out.

People look at me all the time and think they know everything there is to know about me, and they're usually wrong.

If you can relate, I applaud you. Go out there and prove people wrong. Prove that you're way more than what people first believed. Be yourself, regardless of what people will say.